Dear GoDaddy – Why I’m Moving Out

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I don't know if you noticed, but I've started moving my 1400+ domain names (spread across four accounts) to other registrars; mostly Namecheap (if you want to move your domains, use SWITCH2NC in the promo code field and you get I think up to a dollar off per domain, if it still works).

If I had to pick one (and it's oh so hard to pick just one) it would probably be that last point that annoys me the most. It's almost 2012; we girls actually own domains now. In some cases, lots of them. Maybe my circles are too small, but I don't know a single woman who is impressed with the big sex sell, and I for one am tired of my reg fees going towards yet another leather jacket for Danica Patrick.

I'm obviously not your target demographic, so I'm taking my domains and moving out. Unfortunately, I can't move them all today, because you are holding hostage the ones for which I have recently changed contact information. But nevertheless, as soon as you release them, I'm moving them all out.

I doubt this message will reach you, and you probably won't care about my paltry few thousand bucks per year. But *I* care about where I spend a few thousand bucks a year, and I'd prefer, from now on, that it wasn't with you.

Comments

Well, said. In addition to each of your points, in helping clients I have run into GoDaddy infrastructure issues that forced clients to take their site down in order to move to "faster" GoDaddy grid server.

I seem to remember a bruhaha about GoDaddy "reserving" a domain after a visitor searched for a domain name. If they came back later to buy it, GoDaddy already bought it.

I also moved all that I could years ago. I have been very pleased with the service at Fabulous.com

Yea I remember that too; I remember the WebmasterWorld post about it. I'm not sure they're still doing that though, so I didn't add it to the list. Last time I tested it, they didn't seem to be "holding" a domain after a simple search.

I really liked Fabulous too, but my credit card companies kept tacking on extra charges because they were in Australia; made it something of a PITA to deal with.

Well said! We have hardly the amount of domains that you have, but we spend quite a lot on servers with Godaddy. That is now going to stop and we are moving away all our domains as we speak and moving to new hosting centers. So long Godaddy, you wont be missed!

Loved this! I turned against GoDaddy back when they were securing domain name ideas that I would search but not buy on the spot. That ticked me off so bad that I went to Moniker.com. The GoDaddy advertising is just another proof that I don't want to support their company.

Good job.. I did something similar about a year ago. That's a great list of reasons to move on out, but for me the last point is also the most annoying as well. If you have to resort to the sex angle to get your name out there, you probably aren't doing too well in the actual services or offering department. And then once you start looking at all the other things piling up – Namecheap is a much better option.

I've always wondered if Bob Parsons micromanages the company to death. Everything the company does from advertising to customer service smells like it was crafted from a mix of Ed Hardy, dead elephants and machismo.

I still can't believe that more than a decade later, the company continues to film their awful "you're a guy, you have to like boobs so here's some boobs and if you're a girl you're probably jealous of how hot these girls are" commercials.

Like Danica Patrick really takes the time out from driving her Nascar-smash-em-up to register domains.

Yes – thank you. They're so relentless that I sometimes forget what I actually bought and wonder what I'm going to end up with. It's like when there are so many movie trailers you forget what movie you came to see.

I'm with you – this was just one offense in a long history of offenses, and I think I'm finally done.

The SOPA bit pissed me off enough to finally move the rest of my domains (I've slowly been moving away from GoDaddy for the last 2 yrs). And as far as the T&A commercials go… well, being a guy I don't mind, however as a marketer I could find 100 better ways to advertise. Well said, and I think that this is something that will be looked back upon as a 'learning situation' in 2012 (what not to do, but still a lesson to be learned). .02 DB

Kudos to you for saying all the things I've thought for so long. I remember having to set up WordPress blogs for clients on GoDaddy hosting and thinking to myself what a crappy interface it was. I had to call customer service / tech service EVERY time because it was so difficult to figure out. Nothing is logical and YES, everything is blocked by upsells.

The scantily dressed women are just another proof of the archaic thinking. We're web geeks…this isn't a perfume commercial. Give me a break. Thank you!!

Well said. I can't stand the way their CEO and ad campaigns position themselves in the marketplace. I just seems a little slimy to me and chauvinistic.

I would also add that the fact that they auction off domains at ridiculous prices after the domain has been expired and is no longer in use by the former owner – as opposed to letting it circulate normally. I'm sure other companies do this as well, but for domains that are a little more high-end rather than a lower-end to irrelevant domain that just so happened to be the main variation of my core domain that had expired from its previous owner. Pretty annoying all around…

Well on that last score – a lot of companies do that, and I honestly don't have a whole lot of problem with it; I look at domains as real estate, and either you have the forethought to snap up the good names or you pay the market price (you don't even wanna know what I paid for netmeg.com) Yes, I know it's annoying, specially if you want the domain yourself (there's one I absolutely need for a project and it's not being used and the guy won't return phone calls, emails – I even wrote him a letter!) but… that's the the way the free market works. There is a lot of other shady stuff that goes on that I would go after before I'd worry about that one. Like the practice of giving some large domainers/companies first crack at prime expired domains, before they even GET to the market.

I could not agree more with you. I only have 30 domains, more than many, but far less than you, and I look forward to moving mine. With a new born son, and busy work schedule I have not gotten to this yet, but rest assured, all my domains will be removed from GoDaddy as well.

I hope they feel the hurt this support for SOPA and their other issues are causing them. I would be really curious to see an actual number for how many total doamins were pulled away from them.

I do feel bad though for their employees who are forced to call us, and for those who are laid off as a result of GoDaddy losing big dollars – perhaps those employees should go apply at NameCheap, they may need the help soon.

I'm in the same position as you, the last of my domains is being "held" by GoDaddy because I updated the contact info. I've since learned this is specifically a GoDaddy rule, not an ICANN rule and that it may in fact violate ICANN rules, and I was told that in the past GoDaddy waived the waiting period in the case of folks who filed ICANN complaints. I checked ICANN.org and lo and behold, changing your contact info is not included amongst the acceptable reasons for refusing to release a domain to a new registrar.

So I filed an ICANN complaint ( http://bit.ly/icanncomplaint ) – it was easy, quick, not a problem at all. Still waiting to find out what happens, but you may want to consider filing a complaint as well. Maybe if enough of us do it, ICANN will do something wholesale about these apparently unsanctioned domain holds.

Netmeg, I thought you would like to know, the ICANN complaint apparently worked, GoDaddy has waived the 60 day wait period after I corrected the contact info and I've transferred it away. I'm now 100% GO DADDY FREE!!!

Godaddy is a satanic company. If you do a good research you will find out! Another big reason to AVOID Godaddy: they are charging twice millions of client users. Charging illicit… The president of this company bellongs to a secret society and they LOVE projects like SOPA/PIPA. Im moving out as well!